How to create ISO image files?

macrumors member

Can anyone give me advise how to create ISO image files? My church receives quite a lot of children lessons and other materials on CD-ROMs for further distribution and we used to make ISO image files and put on our FTP server for downloads. Recently we replaced our old PC with a new iMac G5, and purchased Toast Titanium 7. To my big surprise, there is no way to create simple ISO image file in Toast 7! Our clients use Nero Burning Rom software on their PCs, so DMG or Toast files are not an option for us. We need ISO format files, but it seems that Disk Utility in Tiger hasn't ISO section anymore. Any advise how to do that?

Moderator emeritus

I think you might be able to use Disk Utility to create ISO images (probably called something like CD-R Disk Master). If not hdiutil (command line in the Terminal certainly can).

You need to be a little careful as hdiutil like to create ISOs with HFS format not Joliet! You can use some more command line stuff to get Hybrid disks but I've got a feeling this is getting a bit much!

macrumors member

I also agree Disk Utility might be the way to go - just select "CD/DVD Master" in the "Image Format" pull-down.

However, Disk Utility creates an image with the extension ".cdr" (even if you image a DVD) - which wouldn't be good on a Win machine - think that is the extension for a Corel Draw file.

But if like Toast images, the Disk Utility images are actually just raw image (.iso) files with a proprietary extension. You should be able to change the extension from .cdr to .iso (ignoring the warning message). I tested it on my 10.4.3 machine with no problems. I don't have a Windows machine to test the switched extension image, but it might be worth a try.

I also recall chaning a PC Nero image file (.nrg?) to .iso and was able to burn it with Toast.

macrumors regular

Can anyone give me advise how to create ISO image files? My church receives quite a lot of children lessons and other materials on CD-ROMs for further distribution and we used to make ISO image files and put on our FTP server for downloads. Recently we replaced our old PC with a new iMac G5, and purchased Toast Titanium 7. To my big surprise, there is no way to create simple ISO image file in Toast 7! Our clients use Nero Burning Rom software on their PCs, so DMG or Toast files are not an option for us. We need ISO format files, but it seems that Disk Utility in Tiger hasn't ISO section anymore. Any advise how to do that?

Click to expand...

1. Launch Toast 7
2. Select Data tab along the top
3. Select ISO9660 in the left hand drawer

You may need to set the Preference to Show legacy formats and settings

Speaking of dd, it's an easy way to create disc images of all kinds on unix boxes, including OS X. dd if=/dev/cdrom of=image.iso or equivalent (I'm not at my iBook to check the cdrom device name.). Also, if dd is not standard you may have to Fink it.

You could also use mkisofs to create ISO images fom files from Terminal.

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